David Padgett's recruiting challenge: 'The biggest thing is who's going to be the head coach'

U of L Coach David Padgett talks about recruiting challenges while the program is under investigation and only an interim head coach at the helm
Sam Upshaw Jr./Louisville Courier Journal

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U of L coach David Padgett yells at players during a slow start to the first half of play against the visiting Bryant Bulldogs at the KFC Yum! Center on Monday night. Dec. 11, 2017(Photo: Alton Strupp/Louisville Courier Journal)Buy Photo

David Padgett is in no position to make promises. He is a first-year coach with no guarantee of a second season.

His recruiting pitch for the University of Louisville, then, is necessarily vague, contingent on the inexact timetables and imprecise aims of interim bosses. It entails selling a school without a permanent president or athletic director, with one set of NCAA sanctions pending and another one probable.

He is selling a vision that is hard to see.

“It’s a unique situation,” Padgett said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s different, pretty unprecedented. You just have to make the most of it.”

Wednesday’s hearing in Atlanta, in which Louisville completed its formal appeal of the NCAA penalties arising from the recruiting sexcapades staged by Andre McGee and Katina Powell, brought the university to within a step of resolution and, conceivably, of closure. Still at issue is whether U of L will be required to vacate 123 victories, two Final Four appearances and one NCAA championship. Still at risk are four years of conference revenue sharing proceeds from NCAA Tournament appearances.

Yet while those matters rate high financial and psychic significance for Louisville constituents of long standing, they likely matter less to the players Padgett is trying to recruit. Much as U of L alumni and administrators are eager to move on from tales of strippers and prostitutes at Billy Minardi Hall, the appeals decision expected next month will not end the uncertainty surrounding the basketball program.

So long as Padgett’s future remains cloaked in fog, so long as the FBI continues to probe the bribery scandal that led to the firing of Rick Pitino, Louisville basketball is like a prisoner marking time until his next parole hearing; a prisoner also awaiting indictment on an unrelated crime.

It’s hard to get on with your life when you don’t know where to go, whom to follow or when you might be allowed to depart. It’s hard to sell the future with confidence when there’s still a price to be paid for the past.

“Right now, the biggest hurdle we have to clear from a recruiting standpoint is who’s going to be the head coach moving forward after this season,” Padgett said Wednesday. “And obviously we don’t know the answer to that.”

“(Louisville's) been a tradition-rich, storied program for 30-40 years now. Our hope and my hope is that doesn’t change moving forward.”

David Padgett

Padgett has won seven of his first nine games since Pitino was placed on administrative leave in late September, and he has generally performed with distinction under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Yet while the interests of continuity and short-term recruiting might be best served by making Padgett’s interim position permanent, the opportunity to hire a more established coach and Louisville’s overriding interest in filling seats could leave the program in limbo for several more months.

Unless interim athletic director Vince Tyra is prepared to entrust Padgett with a program that has been the leading revenue-producer in college hoops, or inclined to hire an out-of-work coach such as Tom Crean, Louisville may be lucky to land its next coach before late spring. And the longer he waits, the larger the toll on Louisville recruiting.

“From a recruiting standpoint, there are so many things that could or could not impact a recruit,” Padgett said. “The situations are so different, but the biggest thing is who’s going to be the head coach. We can’t answer that. Everyone understands the situation when we talk to recruits and so on and so forth. They get it. It’s just about us selling the brand, trying to lay the groundwork of Louisville basketball and what it will be moving forward.”

What it can be is a consistent championship contender. What it will be, at least for the foreseeable future, is a program in need of clear direction and swift justice. For even after the McGee/Powell mess is resolved, the alleged payment scheme behind the recruitment of Brian Bowen poses an additional threat further complicated by Louisville’s status as a repeat offender.

What high-profile prospect or proven coach would be willing to sign on amid so much uncertainty?

What might make the most sense is to keep David Padgett in place for the sake of stability, at least until the clouds disperse.

“Regardless of who’s here, Louisville is still going to be Louisville,” he said. “It’s been a tradition-rich, storied program for 30-40 years now. Our hope and my hope is that doesn’t change moving forward.

“We play in the most spectacular arena in the world. We have the best fan base in the world. I’m biased, but that’s what I believe. It doesn’t matter who’s standing on the sidelines coaching the team because at the end of the day the name on the front of the jersey is still the name on the front.”

The identity of the coach matters mightily to recruits. The sooner Louisville can identify him, the better.